I agree to a point, I think most of the time if people see a trans character or something they will just ignore it but still play the game. The problem with Concord is that this kind of thing was impossible to ignore. In Overwatch if you don't want to play as a brown person then you can pick a white person instead. Concord had no white characters, the closest they had was one Latino guy who could be white if you squint hard enough. It was impossible to ignore or get past.

it's interesting how this kind of thing compares to the otaku ethos of making characters attractive specifically so that it may drive fan engagement and generate activity around it, with all the fanart and the doujins that are treated as legal even with how stringent japanese copyright is, in great part due to their production being a gauge for success separate from sales
the monetization of skins for characters he describes in western live service games seems to have converged with gacha in this regard, both feeding off a dedicated core of whales that get extremely invested into a particular game, with the difference that in the west it's purely cosmetic
>>33988
that guy teo that appeared at one point is definitely white, but i agree, with the comments i've seen regarding the practices of the development team it seems they were designed on purpose to go against current standards

I'm glad it failed. These giant games with nine digit budgets need to fail. It's utterly absurd that this much money is moving around and yet games themselves are not bringing anything new or fun. AAA is a curse upon gaming. The more money spent, the more of a static blueprint that a game has to follow to satisfy the investors which means the more boring and generic the resulting game will be. No one is going to throw that kind of money around without a powerpoint presentation of algorithms and market research bereft of any creative value. The only exception I can think of is Elden Ring, but I wouldn't say that it's budget that is presumably at least 10x higher than Dark Souls made a game that is 10x better than it.

And, well, yeah, personally I'm someone that thinks beauty is an ideal that should be reached for and celebrated, from cuteness to sexiness to just things that are pleasing to look at like a nice water fountain or beautiful scenery. It's innately satisfying to the mind, and rejecting it is a weird quasi-religion that people have these days in the same vein that people denied earthly pleasures for the old religions. Many (not all) of the artists working for the studios that create these characters do in fact create pretty or cool things when they're creating their own works, so there is at least good news in that the artists themselves still wish to add beauty to the world.

Now if only the gacha genre would implode...

>>33991
Oh, but I do think the aqua-colored monkey-cat alien is pretty cute

>>33992
i like the snazzy purple android better

>>33988
Fanart does not go against Japaneses copyright.

I would not call Teo white, he was the Latino guy I mentioned. You might be getting confused by his eyes. He has one blue eye but I don't think that is a natural eye.

>>33987
>culture of toxic positivity and refusal to acknowledge critique
In this case politics or rather the ideology of a particular political movement is the source of this "toxic positivity". Revolutionary political ideologies require a large level of ideological cohesion, in order for them to function and accomplish their goals. It's why there was so much infighting and purges in fascist and communist, and even in the French revolutionary movements. When you get a game company like blizzard that is, on an institutional level, ran by a group subscribing to a revolutionary ideology, it's impossible for critique that runs counter to ideology to exist. This naturally leads to a "culture of toxic positivity", with respect to developing a game that reflects "their" values.

speaking of game design and political adjacent stuff...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2024/09/30/censoring-the-dragon-quest-iii-remake-is-just-silly-and-unnecessary/

are we living in bizarro world? how does a forbes article get made on this

>>34009
Forbes has stuff from crypto authors about how fiat is coming to an end soon. It's a bad publisher with no interest in seriousness

>>34010
Can you not crush my dreams so swiftly

>>34009
yeah the guy's profile looks fairly milquetoast, it seems he posts stuff (lots of mecha) without a whole lot of oversight and since google says contributors can post without going through any editors i assume he just feel like writing a small note about it
he wrote this too:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2024/05/15/japanese-fans-are-puzzled-that-yasuke-is-in-assassins-creed-shadows/

Yeah I don't understand why forbes starting covering game stuff. I guess headlines like "Gaming now worth blahblah billions a year" forced them to start adding video game stuff and it drifted into editorializing since just-the-facts reporting doesn't get the clicks.
Generally it's a bad idea anytime anything mainstream reaches into gaming culture stuff since it's mostly about browbeating nerds without social power, but that guy seems alright I guess.

>>33996
Oops, Just realised that I replied to myself...

>>33996
Was meant for >>33990

>>34009
>>34016
Video games are a big business and they get a lot of attention. Articles on them are probably a good way to attract new readers as well.

i like concord

>>34021
>nooooo you can't make fun of 200 million dollar collapse b-because nooooooo
literally the entire video, be yourself for watching him

>>34023
imagine getting angry over meta drama about video games

>>34021
>who cares?
sony sure does lmao

When you get to the point you really do believe everyone critical of your work is a turbo nazi misogynist then you're in schizo territory. You can't actually steer the ship if you can't test reality.

>>34021
In the spirt of that video I want my 5 minutes back.